Young Irish Sports Stars Celebrate Christmas in Kansas
For a couple of months now I have been reading of Irish sporting champions who will be travelling to Kansas City to compete in an event. Yet I haven’t heard anybody in Kansas City talk about it. Not even the Irish.
What could it be? Soccer? Hurling? Snooker? Horse Racing? Pitch ‘n’ Toss?
Well it’s actually an Irish sport. Nope not Gaelic Football. The two million souls in the Kansas City area spread over eleven counties couldn’t yield one team of fifteen players, never mind an actual competition. Camogie? Don’t be silly.
Ireland of course, in its humble way, believes it started this great sport and gave it to the world - even though there are pictures of it being played in Rome and Egypt. Curiously though it was from Ireland and not the Romans that the English learned it
The Spanish are another people who think they invented it, yet when the conquistadors arrived in Mexico, before they could even begin their conquistadoring they found the local population playing away in a form of this sport.
Despite its ancient popularity in Mexico, it was actually from Irish immigrants that its modern version spread across the United States. Early days of the sport as introduced by Irish men are very well documented, in San Francisco and most especially in Brooklyn where it exploded.
One of my favourite sights ever in Kansas City was a couple of years ago when cycling through neighbourhoods to the zoo I came across some men playing it in what had all the appearances of a Sunday routine.
But then in Ireland, their courts in villages all over the country was always a sight I loved seeing. Indeed when younger it immediately induced a game among us. My own grandfather won medals for it that have long since disappeared like any much treasured heirloom.
From December 27-30 at The Athletic Club in Overland Park, Kansas at 10440 Marty, is the USHA National Juniors Four-Wall Championships.
Handball. Four-Wall is the American term for what the Irish call 40×20 - one of four codes of the sport played in Ireland.
The Roscommon Herald has details of some Irish players taking part.
In Ireland handball is played under the auspices of the GAA. Here is their list of Irish winners of the USHA Juniors
Note the name in there in 1998 of Paul Brady for the Under-17 title. This year Brady became the first person to simultaneously hold the Irish, US and World Singles and Doubles titles
And this weekend just gone Brady won $20,000 in California in the Simple Green US Open Handball, defeating the number one seed Naty Alvarado Jnr in the final.
More from The Hogan Stand
See External Links:
• The Irish Handball Council
• United States Handball Association
• Gaelic Athletic Association
See More Sport on Irish KC:
• Synthetic Testosterone Reported for Landis
• Racehorses, Romance, and the Irish
• Ireland, Argentina and Germany
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